Is Revolver the greatest album ever made? Here’s the facts behind the album celebrating its 50th anniversary

Why some think it is…

Revolver by The Beatles recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, and for some it is the pinnacle of both recording technology and songwriting. For others, it is truly the beginning of the psychedelic era. For others, it’s just a damn fine listen…

If people are still talking about an LP 50 years after its release, it is truly a sign that it truly impacted the listening public, and continues to do so. It doesn’t help that there have been various remasters and re-releases over the year to continually keep the LP/CD/Digital download in the hands of prospective consumers. If the album were truly awful however, it would NOT sell as well as it does. You can’t polish a…dog doo doo 😉

Since we are Beatlemaniacs, and we know a lot of other people are as well, we found this great article we wanted to share, to give you a sneak peek and discover some cool facts about the recording of this legendary album.

Personally, this album stretched and pushed the boundaries of what a modern recording studio could do, and what was EXPECTED to be accomplished. George Martin and Geoff Emerick were at the Beatles’ whims when it came to different sounds and textures. The songwriting also advanced tremendously, as the Beatles no longer cared to stick to the ‘two guitars, bass, drums” arrangement any longer, as they had decided to stop touring and wanted the songs to stand on their own as works of art.

18 reasons to keep purchasing CDs and records

What can we say, perhaps we’re a little biased? We love our physical mediums…CDs, tapes, vinyl, etc. I mean, who ever stared in wonder at a digital download and got misty while reading the lyrics? Oh yeah, digital releases don’t *come* with lyrics 🙂 So maybe you want to continue purchasing CDs and records 🙂

Oh, let’s rewind a moment…we’re not here to judge how you consume music, but we are here to expose a valid point, several really. In our daily dive through online pop culture, we found this great online article in The Gauntlet that gives 18 reasons for still buying hard copies of music. And maybe you want to still stream it via Spotify or Apple Music, which is cool. Give your favourite artists a couple of ways to get paid by their fans. Anyway, back to the story, and here are a few points that stood out for us, click on the link at the bottom for the complete list:

CDs and Records still sound better – they do. You don’t have to be an audiophile to realize that all digital music, even including FLAC use some form of compression to remove audio that manufacturers think we can’t hear. Audio experts like Alan Parsons will tell you that there is something missing, some ‘air’. That the music doesn’t sound ‘open’, or has artifacts. Hey, we love the portability of our digital files, on our phones, iPods, etc but when we do some serious listening, nothing beats a vinyl record, CD, DVD Audio or BluRay. We’ve recorded music into Pro Tools and looked at the waveforms and you can see subtle differences. Try it sometime!

Less Expensive: Song for song buying physical media new, beats digital prices hands down (a random comparison of over 100 samples, yields a 27% lower price for media.) If you buy used there is no comparison. But here’s the upshot: You still get the MP3’s 4’s or whatever file type you want. In fact, Amazon on certain CDs sends you the mp3’s immediately meaning that you can enjoy the digital files while waiting for the postal service to bring your treasure. Almost all new vinyl LPs come bundled with Hi Res download codes…

Deep Tracks: If you are of a certain age, singles were great but they were used to drive album sales. We always were looking for something deeper, something more adventurous and that’s where album tracks came in. As the article states, “Often albums have hidden chestnuts that never make it to the hit parade. You will never discover these if you just buy your favorite music files.”

Album Art and Liner Notes: “Sure you can look at on the screen. But this has inherent disadvantages. So you can print it right? Come on let’s get real. There is nothing like the real thing.” We’re a recording studio and music nuts, and we love seeing where things were recorded and who worked on it. And if you want to make sure you sing the lyrics correctly, you’ll need the lyrics, although not all new releases come with them, some do.

Just four points that we think make a pretty good argument for buying hard copies. Here’s the link to the full article, and please share our blog post with anyone you think would like to read it, or our previous posts:

Ringo Starr – Best drummer ever?

Maybe you’ve heard the old quote attributed to John Lennon from some time ago, that Ringo was NOT the best drummer in the Beatles. Was he suggesting that Ringo was not a great drummer? Hmmm…

Many fans were angry when Ringo was plopped into the drum stool, replacing flashy, good looking Pete Best. Pete was a showman, but George Martin felt that Ringo was a more steady drummer, which is what the Beatles needed.

Over the years, some people have taken pot shots at the drummer, saying he wasn’t very creative and his timing wasn’t very good. Just as many if not more have praised his rock steady timing, and his quirky drum fills. So which is it?

This month, we dug up an older article from The Spectator, which examines our personal fave Fab drum stool resident, and boldly suggest that he was a GENIUS (we put it in caps 😉 and that the Beatles were lucky to have him. A genius?

Ringo in studio tracking Tomorrow Never Knows

From the article: “When Paul and John first spotted him out in Hamburg, in his suit and beard, sitting ‘drinking bourbon and seven’, they were amazed. ‘This was, like, a grown-up musician,’ thought Paul.” Yeah, okay, he’d played with showband Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, but ‘genius’? Let’s continue, shall we?

Another thought from the article: “…the Beatles were great only because of the greatness of four men composing and playing together. Without Starr in the mix, they would have sounded quite different, and probably not as wonderful.”

More proof of his genius: “Without him, there’d be no Beatles track like ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, which ends the album Revolver. With its tape-loop screeches and Lennon’s eerie vocal, the whole is held together by Starr’s astonishing, off-the-beat control on slackened tom-toms {thanks to engineer Geoff Emerick}. His drumming makes this piece of music shamanic and, still, utterly fresh.”

Who can forget that epic mini drum solo in “The End” from Abbey Road? Or the quirky fills at the end of “A Day In The Life”? Or that perpetual cymbal wash on the early tracks?

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